In recent years, in accordance with demands for recording a color image at cheap cost, inkjet recording methods, in which a plurality of different color inks are applied to a recording medium having no coating layer, such as plain paper, to thereby record an image on the recording medium, are used. In this case, since the inks are provided to the recording medium having no coating layer, the inks are directly absorbed into paper serving as the base of the recording medium, and ink bleeding occurs. Thus quality of a resulting recorded matter easily degrades.
Then, it can be considered that an image is recorded using an ink having low permeability to prevent the ink from penetrating through the recording medium and to thereby prevent bleeding (referred to as “feathering” hereinbelow) at a boundary portion between the recording medium and the ink in the recorded matter. However, in this case, the ink easily retains on a surface of the recording medium, and accordingly, the drying properties of the recorded matter degrades. When the drying properties of a recorded matter degrades, a finger or the like comes into contact with an ink that has not yet been dried to cause smear on images, and in the case where a color image is recorded, a different color ink is attached to the ink that has not yet been dried, and the color inks are mixed, causing bleeding (referred to as “color bleeding” hereinbelow) at a boundary portion between these inks. Meanwhile, when an ink having high permeability is used to prevent the occurrence of color bleeding, there is a problem that the above-noted feathering occurs and the quality of a resulting recorded matter degrades.
To simultaneously solve these problems, there has been proposed a recording method using an ink and a liquid composition for fixing the ink on a recording medium. For example, there has been proposed an inkjet recording method in which a reaction liquid containing polyallylamine and an ink composition which contains a colorant and a resin emulsion are made adhere to a surface of a recording medium to thereby perform recording (see PTL 1). According to this proposal, print bleeding and printing nonuniformity can be reduced on a recording medium, and moreover color bleeding can be effectively prevented thereon.